Symphony in the Park

So tonight we went to The Allen Ampitheater to see the Allen Philharmonic Orchestra perform patriotic music. Gma and Gpa McMurdie and Michelle came along and we had a nice little picnic and enjoyed the music. Best of all, it was FREE!

Water Baby

Saturday we went to Grandma and Grandpa McMurdie's to swim. It was Abby's first experience in a swimming pool so we had great fun! We both love the water, so we're trying to expose it to her early so she'll love it as much as we do!

Don't you love "firsts?"

Ranger Game

Last night was our first Ranger's game with Abby. We had a great time, and she did wonderfully! She was so tired, she pooped out for a while, which is hard to do in such a loud place. We love having such an easy child. :)

The Monsters Next Door

So yesterday they poured the foundation for the house next door early in the morning. It's fascinating, but very loud! And along with this big guy there are at least two cement trucks and a dozen workers, so you feel like you're being invaded. It's fun to watch the houses around us go up though.
(I forgot to change the camera to color. Sorry about the B&W.)

Professional Development: Business Continuity Training/Exam

The past few weeks have been a bit stressful for me because I've added onto my normal load - work, church, home/family, and Evening Song - some opportunities to obtain certification and training. Most recently I completed a weeklong training from the Disaster Recovery Institute on Business Continuity Planning (BCP). This training was focused on professionals who coordinate, plan, and execute the processes to enable an organization to survive and recover in the event of a disaster (flood, tornado, hurricane, etc...).

Why did I take this training? Protiviti has a suite of services to assist organizations in assessing and planning their BCP program. Since I am still young in my career, and interested in these services, I thought I should gain some training so I could potentially be staffed on a Business Continuity project. This was a really nice thought while the Dallas office had a recognized expert in BCP. Recently that person decided to leave Protiviti, leaving me confused and bewildered as to whether I should still pursue this avenue.

Well, I completed the training and took a long exam. Hopefully I pass, but if not, I'm not sure it's a total loss. At least I was able to get a week off from project work and study for my other exam coming up June 10. More on that later.

Oops...

So we got recessed lighting installed on Saturday and it looks REALLY good! Our electrician, Mike, was up in the attic straddling support beams, when oops! his foot slipped. Brian and I were eating breakfast and looked up to see a leg sticking out of our ceiling. Needless to say, all of us were a little stunned. Mike is all right and the ceiling got fixed by a drywalling crew that was working down the street. (Thank goodness construction is still going on around here!) The house is all put together now and everything is beautiful. He really did an excellent job!

The Hum and Snort

I fed Abby her first bowl of rice cereal today. At first she didn't quite know what to do with it, but pretty soon she caught on and would open her mouth wide while I dribbled it inside. Of course, most of it ended up every other place but her mouth. Then towards the end she started doing the Hum and Snort. That's where she puffs out her cheeks and humms through her nose which makes a cute little snorting sound. (see below) She does it a lot, but it was especially funny to watch her do it with rice cereal seeping from her mouth.

Abby is so much fun!

The Project

So we decided to save some money by putting in the backsplash ourselves. It took us about 4 hours on Saturday to place the tile, and today we're working on removing the remnants of our sloppy mortar job before we can grout. We've only been at it for 20 minutes and we already need a break. Tedious work that we could have eliminated if we really knew what we were doing when we put it on, but it's going to look so good in the end, so we'll be okay.

Abby's New Toy

We bought Abby a "big girl" toy this week. You can tell she's not quite used to it yet, because our little chatterbox goes silent when we put her in. It's so fun to experience her experiencing life!

Muddin'

Abby and I like to go mudding every morning. We go walking

on this great paved trail that connects to our neighborhood,

but it's been so muddy lately we get really dirty. Yeah!

The trail is really beautiful. It's only about a mile long now, but eventually they will add on another five miles or so.

We see all sorts of things along the way. This little bunny was hopping along the trail with stuff in his mouth.

Later we saw a critter hole protected by lots of poison ivy. Smart animal.

We love it here!